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Conservative Cllr's working to solve Cades Farm issue

Residents living on parts of the new Cades Farm estate in Wellington were this week being surveyed about postal and parcel delivery problems due to possible confusion over similar street names.

Local Conservative councillors were delivering the survey forms this week to homes in Aspin Road and Aspin Close, and they will collect the replies on Saturday (26th).

It follows complaints to councillors that for the past 18 months residents have suffered worry and frustration because post and packages have often gone to the wrong addresses.

In one case, a family’s tenancy documents disappeared and new ones had to be sent, leaving the couple concerned about the loss of highly-sensitive personal information.

In other instances, bank statements and doctor’s surgery letters went to the wrong house.

Residents have also told of having to redirect delivery drivers who have used satnav and ended up in the wrong street, some of them even arriving in Rockwell Green instead of Cades Farm.

One homeowner calculated that if everybody had suffered a similar number of problems to himself, there could have been more than 1,400 instances of wrong deliveries in the past 18 months.

Now, the issue has been raised with the estate’s Conservative Wellington town Cllrs James Hunt and Gary James and Somerset county Cllr John Thorne.

Cllr Thorne said: “The street names were chosen by the Deane council as a tribute to the late Selwyn Aspin, who did so much for sport in the town, but nobody seems to be quite sure why two streets so near each other were given his name.

“We want to find out the extent of the problem before deciding what might need to be done to resolve it, and that is why we are surveying every home in both streets.”

Wellington Conservative campaigner Robin Dickinson said: “We have a good team of councillors working hard for people at Cades Farm on a wide range of issues and I am pleased to help them find out the views of residents on this matter.

“I know from personal experience the irritation, worry, and frustration which can be caused by deliveries going astray and so we are acting as quickly as we can to help find potential solutions to the problems.”

Cllr Hunt said: “As one of the ward councillors for Cades Farm I will be very interested in reading the comments we receive from residents before we see if we can take this issue further.”